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Over the weekend at the COP21 climate summit in Paris, nearly 200 countries signed on to a landmark agreement to protect the environment.
Though an accord has just been reached, the energy industry has been preparing for a new reality for some time, according to Leigh Paterson, a reporter with Inside Energy.
"Right now, the dirtiest fuel—coal—still supplies nearly 40 percent of the electricity in the U.S. and in even more in many developing countries," she writes. "The good news is this gas isn’t always destructive. Carbon dioxide or CO2 can actually be turned into a building block to make all sorts of products that we use every day."
Here, Paterson looks at the future of coal in America, and what it will be used for if we stop burning coal for electricity.
What you'll learn from this segment:
- Where the coal industry might go after COP21.
- Whether it's possible to phase out coal in the United Staes.
- What coal can be used for other than energy.